{"id":541811,"date":"2026-03-15T11:03:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T11:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/541811\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T11:03:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T11:03:31","slug":"5-of-the-worst-tech-trends-of-the-2020s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/541811\/","title":{"rendered":"5 of the worst tech trends of the 2020s"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s been a lot of exciting tech trends coming out in the past several years<\/a>, but alongside it there\u2019s been some absolute stinkers.<\/p>\n

From everything becoming a service to dark patterns in everyday interfaces, there\u2019s plenty of annoyances to talk about.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s 5 of the worst tech trends that have annoyed me throughout this decade.<\/p>\n

Paid Subscription Hell<\/p>\n

It feels like almost everything is based around a subscription format these days. From your music to your movies to your meal kits, there\u2019s a way to pay a monthly fee for just about anything.<\/p>\n

Even apps that used to be one-time purchases now opt for monthly or yearly subscriptions, which can spread the cost, but over time it\u2019s easy to end up overpaying.<\/p>\n

Not to mention free trials that require a credit card on file so they can automatically charge you when you forget to unsubscribe.<\/p>\n

According to research from Deloitte in 2025<\/a>, Australians spend an average of $78 per month on digital subscriptions, and the average household has 3.7 subscriptions \u2013 don\u2019t forget that the statistic means there\u2019s many people spending far more.<\/p>\n

AI Everything<\/p>\n

Every second product coming out in the past few years has been \u201cAI-enhanced,\u201d and it\u2019s difficult to navigate as a consumer. Some use cases for machine learning in consumer products are genuinely useful, like AI image upscaling for TVs or inpainting for photo editing.<\/p>\n

What I don\u2019t need is an AI large language model in my refrigerator.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t help but feel the wave of cramming chatbots into every product is far from over, and most are more annoying than helpful.<\/p>\n

Overall, it seems like most implementations are a solution to a non-existent problem, and they\u2019re massively glorified. For example, online shopping assistants that don\u2019t do anything the regular search bar can\u2019t do, or smart home chatbots that replaced a simple button.<\/p>\n

Shocking phone prices<\/p>\n

Phones have been getting more and more sophisticated, and a midrange phone these days is more than capable for just about anyone\u2019s usage.<\/p>\n

But on the high end, I can\u2019t help but be shocked at how expensive these devices can be.<\/p>\n

Most flagship phones these days are starting above $2000, and if you\u2019re after the top-tier storage models you\u2019re looking at nearly $3000.<\/p>\n

With memory shortages continuing through this year, it\u2019s safe to say these prices won\u2019t be coming down any time soon.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Apps for everything<\/p>\n

I tend to keep my phone fairly streamlined, only keeping the apps I need and actively use while deleting the rest. That\u2019s been more difficult when just about everything I do these days has an app to download.<\/p>\n

Parking the car? Use an app to pay.<\/p>\n

Ordering food? Download the restaurant\u2019s app for a discount.<\/p>\n

Bought a new vacuum cleaner? Set it up with the companion app.<\/p>\n

It seems you just can\u2019t get away from apps for everything these days. It\u2019s almost becoming a delight when I see a well-built web app that takes care of my needs instead of being sent to the app store.<\/p>\n

Staff churning<\/p>\n

In the game development industry, there has been a trend of late where companies lay off a significant amount of staff shortly after releasing a hit game.<\/p>\n

In the news at the time of writing was developer EA announcing staff layoffs<\/a> only 6 months after the release of Battlefield 6, which became the best-selling game of last year in the United States.<\/p>\n

Game development is not the only industry with mass layoffs, with many tech industry companies undergoing restructuring driven by speculative reliance on AI-enhanced workflows.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s disheartening to see that even after breaking records with a product you helped ship, your job might still be on the line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s been a lot of exciting tech trends coming out in the past several years, but alongside it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-541811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}